enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

Theresa and Roger Pelletier question how effective a ban on non-native bait fish will be. They sell white suckers and other bait at their shop, Nicki's Tackle, in Belgrade.

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Pelletier, of North Belgrade, attended a legislative hearing last week on a bill that would ban four varieties of bait fish.

"They can't even tell them apart," she said. "They (the fish) are already in the lakes and rivers. How are they going to get rid of them?"

Pelletier and her husband Roger are proprietors of Nicki's Tackle, where they have been selling bait and making custom fishing tackle for 16 years. When they can get away, they love to fish.

Now they are on one side of a debate over the role of non-native species in Maine waters, and what action -- if any --should be taken to control what fish live where.

"It certainly caused quite a stir among bait dealers," Rep. Tom Watson, D-Bath, said of his bill, Legislative Document 163, An Act to Prohibit the Use of Non-native Bait Fish.

Watson said Maine now lists 23 species of legal bait fish. He simply wants to remove the four that are non-native and considered harmful: Eastern silvery minnow, emerald shiner, spottail shiner and blackchin shiner. Fishermen would still have 19 other species to choose from, he said.

In view of opposition from the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine and state biologists, Watson said he will suggest the bill be modified to require dealers to sell only the 19 species of bait fish, letting the fisherman -- who could easily have trouble identifying non- native species -- off the hook.

"If we put the onus on bait dealers, then the responsibility is theirs to police themselves," Watson said. Changing his bill will be up to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee. Watson is a former House chairman of that committee.

A Master Maine Guide and life-long fisherman, Watson said the four species of bait fish he wants to ban came to Maine in the 1960s or 1970s, possibly dumped from a bait bucket -- a practice that is illegal but hard to enforce.

He warned that if Maine doesn't protect its fisheries, the impact will be economic as well as environmental.

"We're losing our reputation for world-class sport fishing," said Watson, who takes parties out for stripers on the lower Kennebec River.

Pike, for example, is a non-native species that can gobble up native species such as brook trout, one of Maine's sought-after fish.

Theresa Pelletier acknowledged that when white perch were introduced to Moosehead Lake years ago, the native landlocked salmon suffered. But her views on pike, another species that can take over a watershed, are economic.

"They are money-makers for us," she said. "We have a lot of out-of-staters who fish for pike."

George Smith, executive director for the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, said he often agrees with Watson, but LD 163 "was just an impractical solution. They (non-native bait fish) are all over the place."

On the other hand, Smith said SAM's focus is protecting native species such as brook trout, and he has lobbied in favor of bills to protect waters not yet invaded by exotic species.

Smith supports Legislative Document 285, An Act to Designate Additional Wild Trout Waters for Recognition and Protection," sponsored by Sen. Ted Koffman, D- Bar Harbor.

The bill would add 150 bodies of water to 284 bodies of water already protected from non-native species through a ban on stocking and use of live bait.

Watson is a co-sponsor of Koffman's bill, and Koffman is a co-sponsor of Watson's bill.

Mike Holt, proprietor of the Fly Fishing Only shop in Fairfield, said he is very concerned about "protecting native species and preventing the spread of invasive ones." He said he supports banning the four non-native bait fish species, but he questions whether the Legislature should be making the rules. He would rather see Department of Inland Fish & Wildlife biologists determine the best policy.

Holt said he would support almost any conservation measure as long as it stopped short of a ban on fishing. He said he worries about the future of Atlantic sea-run salmon and brook trout.

John Burrows, a board member at the environmental group Maine Rivers, said IF&W has been inconsistent. On the one hand, the department deals with the threat of non-native species. But on the other hand, it has managed some non-native species such as pike and small and large-mouthed bass as game fish.

Smith said for him and for SAM, it's about saving native fish.

"The tragedy is that we have been absolutely impotent in stopping the spread of exotic species," he said.

He cited muskies that have devastated the St. John River trout, and pike that have invaded the Belgrade Lakes. "We have not been able to get ahead of this," Smith said.

Non-resident fishing licenses issued in Maine dropped by 28 percent from 1993 to 2005, starting at more than 100,000 licenses and ending at about 75,000.

Smith lamented that, "We are not known any more for fishing. But if we are going to rebuild our reputation, it's going to be based on our native brook trout and landlocked salmon. They are our signature fish."

Steve Cartwright -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

scartwright@centralmaine.com